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* Garth's claim that his chemical explosive was the most power such in history, and one flask could vaporize an entire planet seems doubtful. When the grain in Marta's necklace is detonated as a demonstration to Kirk it destroys her body but has little impact on the surroundings. It also has no effect on the pressure dome or its force field. For that matter, where did Garth get the materials to make such an explosive? Then again, Garth is insane...

Was this a nitpick? Or just an alternative interpretation of the story? Afterall there is little in the actual script to back up the potency of the explosive beyond this insane character's own testimony, and the claim defies common sense. Federation 00:20, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

But the folks aboard the Enterprise seemed to be pretty stunned by the explosive force. 84.250.41.125 20:04, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Is it only my imagination, or is this the only episode that used the Transporter code and password ("Queen to queen's level three")? Something about this should be mentioned in the Background section of the article, I'd think. --Keeves 02:49, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Good Point. What I don't understand is why the crew of the enterprise doesn't beam them back up after kirk twice failing to give the correct password to beam up.--60.241.140.197 03:00, August 2, 2011 (UTC)

Four year old post, but the whole point of it was to make sure it was the right Kirk- they couldn't tell otherwise.--31dot 10:44, August 2, 2011 (UTC)

The fight between the two Kirks is notable in that the unknown stunt double for William Shatner is his spitting image. Hairstyle, build, facial features are eerily similar.

I removed the following for being nitpicks:

In the scene where Garth morphs back from being Kirk while on the floor of the control room, watch carefully: Garth's big plastic ring busts off and rolls on the floor as he bangs his fists.

In the scene where Kirk is on the torture chair, when the torture ends at Marta's request, Kirk shows relief from the pain a small moment before the click of Garth's remote control actually shut the torture device off.

I think the following is a bit far-fetched, so I removed it for now:

Garth's self-coronation followed by the coronation of his female consort can be considered reminiscent of the only known self-coronation in modern history: the one of Napoléon Bonaparte to the status of Emperor of the French (followed by the coronation of Joséphine de Beauharnais by him). This is in direct thematic correlation with Garth's delirium on the question of universal conquest.

(After "This was the first episode produced without co-producer Bob Justman...") Coincidentally, the theme over the closing credits for this episode, and the rest of the series, reverted to the version used in the second season.

This episode is currently set to 2269, but the following one ("The Mark of Gideon") is 2268. The page for Donald Cory sets the date of this one as 2268. We should correct either "Whom Gods Destroy" or "The Mark of Gideon", the question is which date is correct. According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia the first episode set in 2269 is "Whom Gods Destroy". --
Ltarex 10:54, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

When Garth is masquerading as Spock he nerve pinches Marta. The article currently states that this is an example of a human using the technique, however I'd say that there is a fairly good chance that Marta is playing along with the bigger plan and is faking her collapse. In any case it's not a definite example of a human nerve pinch. I've edited it slightly to suggest this. – The preceding unsigned comment was added byThecustodian (talk • contribs).

Elba was the island where Napoleon was exiled, and later escaped from to be defeated again at Waterloo. Garth likewise makes a bid to escape and conquer the galaxy again, only to be defeated. I see that someone previously mentioned the Napoleonic style of his coronation. I think that he also gives a list of famous conquerers at some point (missing out Khan, mind you), and Napoleon is in it somewhere along with Hitler, et al. So I wonder if a small note on similarities, or perhaps references, to Napoleonic history, might be worthwhile?
– Thecustodian 06:29, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I think it is really pushing it, unless a production side source indicating this was intentional can be found. --OuroborosCobratalk 07:23, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

"Really pushing it" seems to be a bit of a stretch. Seems the connection can already be made to Napoleon above. Even ye olde Concordance makes the connection without much hesitation: "The planet is named after the island of Napoleon I's first exile." --Alan 08:05, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Custodian said nothing about the name of the island or planet in the episode, and honestly it had been FOREVER since I had seen it. Besides, if the Concordance is making that link, than we have a citation, and the discussion becomes moot. --OuroborosCobratalk 08:13, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

...not the part about "Elba was the island where Napoleon was exiled...", and by "above", I meant something mentioned somewhere in here that this section is echoing. --Alan 08:17, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Which still does not mention anything in the episode, and a lot of background information on Napoleon is given in his post that has nothing to do with the episode. No attempt was made in the post to connect that, and as I said I hadn't seen the thing in forever. Now are you going to add the cited note, or keep quibling for the sake of tossing egg around? --OuroborosCobratalk 08:21, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

* Garth's comment about Marta being a "stupid cow" was edited out in the TV Land version of the episode in 2007.

Please, let's not add every instance of when something was cut by a network. It'll never stop. - Bridge 11:03, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

How many examples of this are there? The only two that I know are this one and the Irish reunification comment in "The High Ground", which was cut in the UK. Unless there are a great deal of them, I don't see why they shouldn't be mentioned, especially if we are going to mention deleted scenes.--31dot 12:12, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

The Irish reunification one was unique in that it was a national decision, and that for many years the episode itself (in entirety) was not shown. This is not the same thing. Here we are talking about a syndicated network making personal decisions of cutting and editing, which as anyone watching Trek on Spike, or watching the TOS Remastered on broadcast will tell you, it happens all of the time. It isn't worth mentioning each and every instance, unless known that it is noteworthy for some other extreme reason (as in the case of "The High Ground"). We do not even have a source from TV Land expressing why they did the cut, and that it was for anything more than timing/pacing issues to stick more advertisements in. --OuroborosCobratalk 13:52, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Also, as you see here, this TV Land stuff is showing up more and more. --OuroborosCobratalk 13:56, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Additional removed speculative comment: it may be that, as a result of his psychosis, the human inmate believes himself to be an andorian. --31dot 20:00, November 22, 2009 (UTC)

"Gentlemen! You have eyes, but you cannot see! Galaxies...surround us! Limitless vistas! And yet, the Federation would have US grovel away like some ANTS... on some... somewhat larger than usual anthill!!!! But I am not an insect! I am... Master of the Universe! And I must claim my domain!"

- Garth to Kirk and Spock

"Keep your hands off Kirk, you treacherous thing!"

- Garth, to Marta

"Why can't I blow off just one of his ears?"
"Stop it, Marta. Mr. Spock will think we are lacking in hospitality."

- Marta and Garth

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too."
"You wrote that?"
"Yesterday, as a matter of fact."
"It was written by an Earthman named Shakespeare a long time ago."
"Which doesn't alter the fact that I wrote it again yesterday! I think it's one of my best poems, don't you?"
"I MAY KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!"

Leonard nimoy also played a different character in a season 2 episode called "return to tomorrow" so please change the part about him playing only garth other than spock in TOS era – The preceding unsigned comment was added by180.149.7.41 (talk).

The comment does qualify the statement by saying "strictly speaking", as in "Return to Tomorrow" he was still Spock but with someone else in his mind. 31dot (talk) 13:14, August 16, 2013 (UTC)

He wasn't Spock while he was Henoch; Spock's consciousness was either in the ball or in Christine Chapel, but it wasn't in his body, so I think the note that this is the only time Nimoy has played a character other than Spock should be removed. Corylea (talk) 02:55, March 15, 2015 (UTC)